The wearing of badges by people who work in a potentially hazardous environments is well known. A review of the prior art reveals a number of wearable badges or other receptacles that are used to detect potential hazards in the air near the person wearing the badge.
U.S. Pat. No. 4 205 043 (Esch) describes a badge with a hazardous gas indicator that changes color in the presence of the gas.
U.S. Pat. No. 3 482 944 (Plantz) discloses a wearable receptacle or badge that measures the presence of hazardous gas by means of a strip that changes color in the presence of a gas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4 913 881 (Evers) discloses a wearable badge again that indicates the presence of a hazardous gas or vapor. In this particular device the indicator is dosimetric and the degree of color change is determined by the extent of contamination by the gas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4 680 165 (vo-Dinh) also describes a dosimetric device that indicates the presence of organic compounds, more particularly aromatic organic compounds.
Fire fighters are often thrust into hazardous situations. When firefighters arrive at the scene of a fire they often have no idea what type of potential hazards lie ahead. There is a need for a system in which the firefighter, or other person working in a potentially hostile environment, can reduce the risk associated with their work.
The present invention addresses some of these concerns.